


Caldera

by captaineifersucht



Category: Adam (2009), Charlie Countryman (2013), Hannibal (TV)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, Gun Violence, Hurt/Comfort, Injury, M/M, lying
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-09 02:36:06
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,431
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5522267
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/captaineifersucht/pseuds/captaineifersucht
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>During a romantic evening out, Adam has his eyes opened to Nigel's past.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Caldera

**Author's Note:**

  * For [xzombiexkittenx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/xzombiexkittenx/gifts).



> For the hannigram holiday exchange, in which I got the _amazing_ xzombiexkittenx as my giftee. I've been a huge fan of your work for a long time and hope that this is an adequate gift! 
> 
> There will be three parts, only one posted at the moment due to my work schedule! The rating will go up, because what's angst without some smut to balance it out??

**Caldera:**  
_A type of crater that is extremely large, usually formed in the aftermath of a violent volcanic explosion._

\---

They were in an abandoned neighborhood downtown, where the streetlights didn’t come on after dark and the potholes weren’t fixed after winter. Adam had been insistent on the location, citing the necessity of darkness. The dilapidated oceanside street was the perfect escape from man-made light... or something like that.

Nigel had a cigarette hanging from between his lips and his right hand was comfortably slipped into the back pocket of Adam’s jeans. It was chilly out, clouds of breath pouring from the boy’s mouth with each spout of information.

“ It’s almost one, so we should be able to see some of them soon. The meteors show best at two. There’s so many of them, almost as good as the shower in August. It’d be better if we could be up at the observatory but...”

But Nigel had insisted on taking him out to dinner, to celebrate a “promotion” at work. The gastropub was comfortable, cozy, and popular. It had taken some string-pulling to get reservations on a Friday night, something Nigel was more than willing to do for Adam, especially when the restaurant had a fancy version of cheese and pasta on their menu.

The downside of their reservation time was that they didn’t have enough time to get out into the country, for minimum light interference from the city. Adam had relented--only because there was no moon this year to further obscure the bright meteor shower. 

“ See, there’s Castor,” Adam pointed up to the bright sprinkling of stars in the expanse of blackness above them.

Nigel stepped behind the boy, extracting his hand and wrapping his arm around the slim waist. He gestured with the burning embers of his cigarette at the brightest star he could see. “ That one?”

“ No,” Adam laughed. “ That’s Pollux.”

“ Darling, I don’t know what any of this fucking means.”

 

He dropped the butt and crushed it beneath the heel of his boot. Adam settled back into his arms, his giggles subsiding. 

“ They’re both a part of the Gemini constellation. That’s why the shower is called the Geminids, the meteors originate from there.”

They had stopped in the middle of a desolate boardwalk. Knowing Adam, these were the exact coordinates that he’d chosen to stake out their late night watch. Unlike other enthusiasts, Adam brought no photography equipment, no telescope. He carried with him only an eidetic memory and the passionate curiosity of a child, neither which Nigel fully understood.

“ You said it should start soon?” Nigel hooked his fingers into the belt loops of Adam’s pants, pulling the younger man closer. December wasn’t normally frigid, but the late night chill was reason enough for intimacy.

“ There’s no exact beginning and end, but hopefully.” Adam’s voice was wistful, his head still tilted skyward.

Nigel hummed into the dark curls before him, less focused on the potential for shooting stars than enjoying the company of his lover. The demands of buyers increased with the stress of the holiday season, a shipment of cocaine was lost for two weeks, and three nights ago he beat the shit out of one of his confederates for double-crossing him on a deal. This was the first night in over a week that he would spend with Adam. 

As long as they ended up in the same bed, he was more than happy to stand in the cold. 

“ I...I’m sorry we’re here so early.”

“ Darling,” Nigel sighed. He nuzzled his way down to Adam’s ear and pressed a soft kiss to the flesh. It was difficult not to set teeth to cartilage, to cause the predictable cascade of reactions that he knew would make Adam keen and wriggle.

Instead, he gently guided Adam to turn in his arms. Nigel curled his forearm into the small of the boy’s back and leaned down to kiss his chilled lips. When they parted, Adam didn’t hesitate to meet his eyes. 

“ I only want to spend time with you. That’s why I fucking took you out to dinner. ”

Adam’s forehead fell to rest upon Nigel’s chest. “ Alright, Nigel.”

“ What, you don’t fucking believe me?” Nigel directed Adam’s head upwards again, cradled his hand around the fragile base of his skull. “ Do I need to prove it to you, sweetheart?”

The frown on Adam’s face slowly melted into a coy smile. His clear blue eyes darkened slightly, a recent phenomenon that Nigel now eagerly tried to elicit. “ Please?”

“ Of course, gorgeous,” Nigel purred. The pitch of his voice has dropped, his fingertips slipped underneath the hem of Adam’s jeans. “ You know I’d do fucking anything for you.”

Adam’s smile was brighter than any star in the sky, his eyelids slipped closed like an eclipse. Nigel leaned in for the filthy kiss that was expected of him, only to find the younger man’s body torn away from his in a frantic burst of gunshot and blood.

“ Nigel!”

Two voices screamed his name, one fraught with fear and the other rough with rage.

Nigel turned to the threat.

“ The fuck?!”

Darko moved towards them with a grimace on his face. Nigel was sure it was supposed to be a predatory smile, but the extensive cuts and bruises disfigured his features. His gun was lowered, a decision that made Nigel hesitate.

Behind him, Adam whimpered. Nigel turned to look at him for a moment. 

The boy’s cream cable-knit sweater was soaked through with blood at the shoulder. He could see where the muscle fibers had split, the deep gash that bubbled with additional fluid. There was something terribly wrong, the way the limb was limp and Adam clutched at his wrist and his elbow in turn, not the gaping wound.

“ I-I can’t move my arm!” Adam wailed, making brief eye contact with Nigel.

Nigel looked away. He backed up so his body shadowed Adam’s and pulled his pistol from the small of his back. Adam was badly injured, but Nigel had to keep him safe for the rest of the altercation so there’d be a chance to fix it at all. 

“ You thought you could shut me out of my own deal without repercussions?” Darko was limping slightly. Two of his toenails had been removed and the digits crushed. Nigel found it surprising that he could bear weight on the foot at all.

“ Fuck you,” Nigel hissed in their mother tongue. Adam didn’t need to hear this. “ You intended to cut me out of a goddamn profit and kill one of my fucking men in the process. Don’t spew shit, Darko.”

Darko jerked the muzzle of his gun at Adam’s shaking form. “ Looks like I might have killed your faggot girlfriend instead, hmm? ”

Nigel felt hot anger boil in his blood at the thought of Adam dying. He raised his arm without thinking, firing his own weapon at the one that had injured his lover. 

The bullets embedded themselves in the boardwalk, sending splinters flying. There were three holes in the ground, one through the meat of Darko’s palm. While the traitor clutched at his hand, Nigel kicked his gun away and took him by the throat.

“ You were fucking lucky I let you keep your pathetic life last week. Don’t be so fucking sure tonight.”

Recognition of the threat glinted in Darko’s eyes, deep beneath the glaze of pain and hatred. 

Nigel squeezed the pair of carotid arteries beneath his fingers until Darko sank to his knees, vessels breaking in the whites of his eyes. A well aimed kick to the other man’s stomach had him doubling over, enough time for Nigel to tear the pocket square from the front of his victim’s shirt and use it to snatch up the discarded handgun.

With the barrel of the gun to his temple, Darko laughed. The sound was wet and his eyes were crazed. “ Is that cocksucker worth killing over, Nigel?”

A breeze pushed Nigel’s sweat-damp bangs back from his face. He hated that Darko was looking at Adam, talking about him, even if the boy couldn’t understand the words being spoken. His nostrils were flared, tongue running over his gums. Was Adam worth it? 

Nigel sniffed, lip curling. Adam was worth starting a war over, worth more than gold and cocaine and black market organs. He’d raze the Earth to keep Adam safe. It was barely even a question.

“ Hesitating, old friend?”

It was enough sass to make him pull the trigger. Nigel wasn’t shocked by blood or brain matter, skull fragments or torn out hair. What devastated him was Adam’s scream, the look of horror and betrayal on his normally smooth face. In the darkened street, absent of even moonlight, Adam’s terror was lit up by the bright tail of a singular meteor.

He ignored it.

\---

Adam’s arm was burning. It was on fire, it was covered in gasoline, it was being reduced to ashes. The rest of his body was so cold, his head was spinning, and then the _pressure_ came.

A force crushed his arm, held it in a vice that continually tightened. He tried to think of what could do this, how he could feel these sensations and yet when he looked at his left arm, there was no fire, no large concrete block. 

“ Nigel,” he gasped. The pain blurred his vision but he knew that Nigel had moved away from him. “ Nigel, p-please.” 

Unlike before, the older man didn’t turn back to acknowledge him. Nigel had a gun, his own, and where did that come from? He worked as a security guard in a hospital, but Adam didn’t think he had a gun. 

There was another gunshot, one that made his ears ring all over again. It was too close, too loud. Adam cried out again, terror making his skin crawl. 

Nigel shot someone. 

“ Liar,” Adam whispered. His throat constricted, body shaking with the fear. Nigel just shot the man that had shot him. Nigel had a gun, and didn’t hesitate to fire it.

There was a bullet in his shoulder.

The strange foreign man who’d shot the bullet was on his knees, his eyes flicking between Nigel’s face and Adam’s. The two men were speaking a different language, snarling and snapping at each other like rabid dogs. 

Nigel kicked the man and picked up the other gun. Adam was openly sobbing. The stranger looked at Adam and smiled strangely as his own gun was put to his head. He spoke to Nigel but stared deep into Adam’s soul.

“ Please, no,” Adam whispered. He tried to sit up from where he lay, to turn away from what was going to happen. There was blood all around him and his feet kept slipping. “ Nigel, no, no, no, no, n-no…”

He chanted through the pull of the trigger, his words becoming louder as he hyperventilated. Each breath pulled at something deep within his chest, sent more blood running down his arm. His ribcage expanded and contracted in a short, spasmodic rhythm. 

Nigel took the man’s coat off and mopped up the mess of blood and body with it. He occasionally looked back to meet Adam’s eyes, but never for long. It felt like forever, the process of cleaning up after the mess he’d made.

Nigel was thorough. 

\---

When the body was rolled into the ocean and the gun chucked out to sea, Adam saw his first meteor of the shower. At that point, the pain in his arm had become an all encompassing throb. With each burning pulse, another streak of light bloomed across the sky, gashes cut across the darkness that made flashes of blood and bullets play behind his eyelids. 

Nigel was off to the side, calling 911.

Adam closed his eyes. Tears leaked from the creases.

“ They’re on their fucking way, darling.” Nigel reached to touch the wound and Adam flinched away. “ I’m so damn sorry, this is all fucked up. You were never meant to see any of this, especially not that asshole.”

“ You lied.” 

Adam’s chest tightened again, a premonition of renewed sobbing. 

Nigel didn’t respond for a few moments. He moved slowly, hand inching towards Adam’s uninjured one. 

“ I’m sorry,” he repeated.

“ You _lied_ ,” Adam reiterated, because Nigel didn’t _understand._ Could he? “ You’re a liar, Nigel. A liar. Liar. Liar, liar, liar, _liar, **liar**_!”

He slapped Nigel’s hand away, upsetting the fragile clotting in his other shoulder in the same movement. Blood ran anew. 

“ Adam, darling--”

“ Don’t!” Adam punched Nigel’s knee--it was all he could reach. The action was weak, but the meaning was seemingly felt. He could hear sirens in the distance.

Red and white lights flickered against a building. Nigel backed away from him and Adam let the sobs come out. They hurt his chest, his arm, everything. He hadn’t looked at the bullet wound since discovering he couldn’t move his arm, he didn’t need to. His pectoral, deltoid, and biceps muscles were all severely injured, possibly the major blood vessels and the nerves of his brachial plexus. Rudimentary anatomy knowledge was enough to terrify him about the extent of his injuries.

The ambulance pulled nearby them, Nigel striding over to the first EMT and whispering quick words that were met with a nod.

A woman unloaded a gurney while the man asked Adam simple questions and waved light in front of his eyes. Nigel was touching him, he knew this, but it felt very far away, like his hands were separated from Adam’s hair by a thick comforter. 

“ He’s in shock.” 

“ He was fucking shot!” That was Nigel, hysterical. Another set of lights joined the first. Police.

What else had Nigel lied about? _Who_ was Nigel? 

Adam’s body was lifted and arranged, his head stabilized. He wanted to tell the technicians that he didn’t have a head injury, but his throat no longer produced sound. They moved about him efficiently and quietly. Needles were supposed to hurt, but he didn’t feel the one that entered the crook of his arm. The gurney moved and lifted again, tearing away the phantom feeling of Nigel’s fingertips.

“ I love you, Adam. I’ll be at the hospital as soon as fucking possible, darling.”

The fierce fire that Adam had first fallen for raged within those words. Nigel had brought warm to the impersonal life Adam had started for himself in California. The chill had resurfaced with the bang of a gun. 

Adam felt a profound ache in his heart when the doors to the ambulance shut. He hadn’t come all the way out here to be lied to again.


End file.
